Runtime: 95 minutes
Directed by: Sam Firstenberg
Starring: Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Judie Aronson, John Fujioka, the greatly named Guich Koock
From: Cannon
Goofy schlock... but at least it's also entertaining schlock.
This was another watch on Prime for me; I had seen American Ninja before, albeit long ago. Even at the time I found it to be rather absurd, trying to believe that Michael Dudikoff was trained as a kid by a Japanese adopted father in the ways of the Ninjutsu and due to circumstances, he's in the Army as his only other option was jail... it is easy for me to scoff as many aspects of this Golan-Globus production, but I won't.
The Duikoff plays the titular American Ninja, serving in the Philippines and he happens to stumble upon an insidious plot-which involves members of the military-to do an 80's movie task and that is ship contraband, in this case missiles. Of course there's a colonel's daughter who is quite attractive because she's played by Judie Aronson (who is still quite attractive in 2022) and of course at first she doesn't like him despite him literally saving her life, until suddenly she falls for him. That is cliché nonsense, but I don't fault the performers for me rolling my eyes at it. After all, years after the fact, Dudikoff stated that for part of the shoot, he had malaria... holy cow.
As easy as it is to nitpick, there are some great unintentional laughs to go along with the acceptable action scenes and sometimes impressive stunts. The Filipino setting also sometimes provided some rather scenic views. For me, the true highlight was the character of CURTIS JACKSON, who no wasn't played by 50 Cent. Rather, it was the great Steve James; he was definitely more believable as a badass, as he was a badass. It wasn't the first time he was involved in such a scenario as the sidekick to a “bigger” name. All that said, if you enjoy silly B-action movies from the 80's, this may be like catnip for you guys.
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